In a race with India to reach the south pole region of the Moon first, Russia is set to launch its first lunar landing mission on August 11 after nearly five decades.
Russias Luna-25 spacecraft will be lifted off on Friday, 28 days after Indias Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Sriharikota on July 14 but the Russian probe is set to touch down in the south pole region around the same time as of Chandrayaan-3, on August 23.Read AlsoCould Russia's Luna-25 beat Chandrayaan-3 in race to be first on south pole of Moon?After a gap of nearly 50 years, Russia is planning to launch a lunar mission on August 11 and enter the race to become the first nation to land a rover on the Moon's south pole -- a potential source of water to support a future human presence there.
India has a head start with its Chandrayaan-3,Lowering Chandrayaan-3 from 100 km orbit very critical phase: ISRO chiefThe most critical phase of Chandrayaan-3 will begin when the spacecraft starts moving closer to the moon from the 100 km circular orbit, Isro chief S Somanath said on Monday.The orbit determination process of Chandrayaan-3 will be planned between August 9 and 17 to place the spacecraft in a 100 kmChandrayaan-3 only 4,313km from Moon, says IsroIsro late on Sunday completed its first Moon-bound manoeuvre a day after Chandrayaan-3 was guided into an elliptical lunar orbit.
The spacecrafts altitude at Apolune (farthest point from Moon) was reduced from 18,074km to take it closer to the lunar surface.
On Saturday, the lunar orbit insertionIsro releases first images of the Moon as viewed by Chandrayaan-3The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Sunday released the first images of the Moon as viewed by Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
"The Moon, as viewed by Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023," Isro said on Twitter.
This comes a day after Isro successfullyAs Chandrayaan-3s Vikram prepares to land, Isro looks at lunar orbit trafficWith just about a fortnight to go before Isro attempts to soft-land Vikram, the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the lunar surface, the space agency has carried out a detailed analysis of traffic around Moon, not just for now but also for the coming years.
And managing this traffic will be a continuousRussian space agency Roscosmos has said its Luna-25 spacecraft will take five days to fly to the Moon and then spend 5-7 days in the lunar orbit before descending on one of three possible landing sites near the pole.
Despite the almost same landing schedule, Roscosmos has assured that there will be no interference between the two landing missions as they have different landing areas planned.
"There is no danger that they interfere with each other or collide.
There is enough space for everyone on the moon," it said.In comparison to the 1,752 kg weight of Chandrayaan-3 lander, the four-legged Russian lander weighs around 800 kg.
If the landing is successful, the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover will run their experiments for 14 Earth days while Luna-25 will work on the Moon for a year.
With a mass of 1.8 tonnes and carrying 31 kg of scientific equipment, Luna-25 will use a scoop to take rock samples from a depth of up to 15 cm (6 inches) to test for the presence of frozen water that could support human life.The Luna-25 will have to practise soft-landing, take and analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research," a Russian space agency statement said.Roscosmos said a Soyuz rocket has been assembled at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the Luna-25 launch.
The launch, originally planned for October 2021, has been delayed for nearly two years.
The European Space Agency had planned to test its Pilot-D navigation camera by attaching it to Luna-25, but broke off its relations with the project after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.At the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin had said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite total sanctions.
He insisted Moscow would develop its lunar programme despite current Western sanctions.
We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin had said at the time.China has also announced plans with Russia to set up a joint base on the Moon by 2035, but no timeline has been drawn up.
China previously successfully landed its probes Chang'e 3 in 2013, Chang'e 4 in January 2019 and Chang'e 5 in 2020.Besides the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India is likely to collaborate with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a joint new lunar mission.
Space scientists would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the Moon's southern pole as part of this mission.In August last year, South Korea launched its first-ever lunar mission.
The mission was called the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri.
The mission was managed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
The goal of Danuri was to test South Koreas lunar spacecraft technology.